Omens Aren't Always a Bad Thing
by fiftycalangel
Summary: The God of Fear falls in love with Raven, having to deal with all the trouble that comes with it
1. Meeting the New Guy

**CHAPTER ONE**

A hooded figure crouched against the side of Titan's Tower with his cloak fluttering in the soft breeze, the sun warming the black leather of his combat suit. Watching as his horse wandered around the island, steel flanks gleaming brightly in the bright sunlight. As with the rest of his wardrobe, his mount was a shade of black darker than the deepest shadow, the flames making up his mane and surrounding his hooves were alive and strong yet not even singing the grass on which he grazed. The cloak upon his back was an enigma, shifting colors seemingly at random, yet currently settled on orange shot through with streaks of pink as he turned his masked visage to the city across the water.

After a few hours of relaxation and reflection, voices were heard drawing nearer by the second. The figure grabbed his swords, the handles of which showed the same properties as his cloak, and returned them to the scabbards across his upper back. As the Titans came into view his cloak snapped into the same darkness as the rest of his armor and he stood.

"And just who the hell are you?" questioned a relatively skeptical Robin, his team dropping into fighting stances behind him. When the hooded figure didn't grace him with a response Robin stalked closer, readying his staff for combat. "I said, 'Who are you?' and you better answer this time." The man, as that's what they decided he was, gestured over to his horse a few feet away, intrigued by the sudden outburst. "You're the Horse man? Pretty stupid name."

"That's a Nightmare, a creature of legend even to me. The Nightmares almost never tolerate a rider, unless they held incredible power." Came a monotone voice from the back of the group. At the sight of Raven, Nightmare's cloak streaked with violet for but a brief instant before melding back into the ebon coloration shared by all he owned save the swords on his back, going unnoticed by all but The Omen. Reaching out to touch the metal sides of the beat she felt an impossibly strong grip on her wrist, not trying to hurt her yet preventing all forward movement. Turning, with her magic flaring in her hand to strike him down, she watched as he brought out his other hand in a gesture of patience.

Walking the group over to the water's edge, he splashed a generous handful against the side of the metal beast. Realization struck them all as the water hissed and steamed before disappearing into the air in a massive, obscuring cloud. The figure then straightened and brushed the rest of the water off of his glove. After a generous amount of squeaking leather his shoulders slumped in irritation. Walking over to his pet he placed the hand against the flames and let the heat evaporate the remaining water.

"Oh, uh, thank you. I didn't realize he was that hot. So what did you say your name was?" Mumbled Raven. She silently cursed herself for blushing at the contact of his glove on her arm, _he was so powerful if that was all it took him to stop me_. Again the figure just pointed to the horse.

Always the smartest of the group, Cyborg picked up quickly. "Oh! Your name is Nightmare!" placing emphasis on 'name' as if just coming to the conclusion of his meaning. Nightmare reached out to give the metal man an acknowledging wag of the finger.

"That's all well and good, but why didn't you just tell us?" questioned the leader, still mad that there was a strange man on their island. In response Nightmare just reached up and knocked on the front of his mask, making no sound in the process.

"The mask doesn't allow sounds?" Raven inferred. She felt the leather on her hand again, making her shudder as he brought it to the faceplate of the mask in a pantomime of a kiss. At the motion, Raven's face was about as bright as Cyborg's eye, thankfully hidden by a cloak of her own. "Th-Thank you." The Titans stared as the normally stoic and monotone woman was reduced to tripping over her words. Cyborg finally noticed the flitting purple streaks in the cloth and decided to ask about them.

"Hey man, what's up with the duds? Why are they changing colors?" directing the question to the smooth "talker" that was standing next to Raven. Snapping out of her embarrassment induced half-trance quick enough to hear the question, Raven placed her hand on his shoulder, a good three or four inches above her own to answer the question for him.

"If I am correct, I believe the cloak and swords on his back work like the emotions in my head, each color denoting an emotion. Since he is not split, and in in the actual world, they transmit as he feels. That should explain why the colors shift instead of being solid like my clones." Nodding his agreement to the statement, Nightmare placed his hand on Raven's as if to say that she got it right._ I could get used to this._

Starfire, after watching the preceding events decided to speak up and make her presence known. "Friend Raven? If I am correct, do you think the colors are the same as on your mental versions of yourself?" Before The Omen could try to answer the princess, the leather clad figure nodded franticly, as if trying to get everyone to understand that she was right.

"Ok, you have magic stuff, whoop die fucking doo, what can you actually do?" exclaimed a very left out Beast Boy." All that color shifty business is just dandy if you want to look like a one man rave." Stunned into silence by the unusual hostility shown in their friend, the team stood staring dumbly between the skin changer and the new guy, who was now standing very straight and no longer holding the empath's hand to his armor. As they watched, the garment started to slowly melt into a bright red, starting from the bunch around his neck and spreading to color the rest.

"Beast Boy, I would **Strongly** advise you either step back or apologize to this guy!" cautioned a wary Cyborg, already powering up the cannon that had morphed from his arm in the silence. The Team, excluding the angry shifter were all slowly backing away and readying themselves incase this turned ugly. As Nightmare tore his mask from Raven's eyes, words started to form in the air made of the purest black flames spelling out 'If someone fears it, I can do it'.


	2. The Truth Comes Out

**CHAPTER TWO**

After Nightmare proved himself to the group by enduring hours of having everything they had thrown at him in sparring matches, with a few memorable instances being when he calmly cut through one of Raven's walls of pure darkness without the barest sign of effort, and him goading Cyborg into shooting him in the chest with his cannon, where he not only just stood there, but captured the beam in between his hands and bounced it between his palms into the air. He was allowed to actually enter the tower itself, following Robin on the tour around the interior he was taken to the training room, the central living area and the kitchen, past the rooms of each of the titans, and to the war room where the central computer was situated against a massive floor to ceiling bank of monitors.

"And that's just about it, if you need anything else or have questions feel free to let us know man, **most** of us are excited to have you as part of our team. And I apologize about Garfield, I don't know what got into him, he's not usually like that." Explained The Titan's leader. "Oh, also, when we are inside the tower we usually refer to each other by our names, do you have a something like that we can use? Makes things easier in conversation you know?" Nightmare simply shook his head and shrugged, miming the fact that he doesn't really care what they call him, but he does not have an official name.

"Ok then, we'll come up with something I guess. But as it stands, welcome home." With a samurai style bow of acknowledgement, Nightmare was off to wander the tower. Settling down in the Common room with the rest of the guys, he watched as they were locked in a vicious MMA style game against each other. Victor currently had Garfield in a headlock against the walls of the ring and was wailing on him repeatedly while Garfield was mashing the buttons trying to break the hold.

"Dude, you can't just hit random buttons and expect them to do anything, you gotta use your combos, like this." And with a vicious combo of three punches and a knee to the face, Victor had won another match. The shape changer stood up and threw the controller onto the couch in a huff, and stormed to his room. Cyborg then turned and saw the masked man standing behind the couch doubled over holding his stomach in a silent imitation of laughter that shook his body and caused his cloak to tremble.

"Oh you think you can beat the champ, mystery man? How 'bout you take a seat and show us what you're made of?" With a fake tear-wiping motion, Nightmare braced a hand on the back of the seat and vaulted over in a nearly silent show of acrobatics and grabbed the controller. Victor had picked his character, a monolith of muscle, while Nightmare chose a significantly smaller opponent to fight with." Really? You're going to fight with him? Alright man, it's your funeral." The fight bell rang and a short scene of both fighters coming out and touching gloves played before they were fighting, or, trying to fight. Cyborg couldn't land a hit with all the ducking and dodging that the shorter man was doing, while taking kicks and knees to the face and legs.

In an all-out attack that had worked on Garfield for so many matches, Victor's character lunged at the smaller man with both fists swinging in an attempt to knock the other man flat. Right before the freight train of a man collided with him, Nightmare moved to the side and delivered a vicious blow to the back of the head that sent him slamming into the wall and the floor, unconscious. Cy sat with his jaw on the floor at the display or speed, the fight had lasted a grand total of forty-five seconds. The "mystery man" sat back and dusted his knuckles on the front of his cloak as he handed the controller to a stunned cyborg. Standing up, he waved for the metal man to follow him. Booting up one of the smaller computers in the war room, Nightmare went to the game's website to show the scoreboard. On the first twenty slots were different variations of his name. With a gracious bow and a flourish of his hand, Victor was treated to the sight of just how good the dude actually was at this game. Grabbing a nearby whiteboard, Nightmare scrawled in sharp letters 'I used to play this game a lot'.

"Yeah I can see that, holy crap dude. Don't let BB see that, he's already pissed at you enough for that thing with Rae, he doesn't need to see that the new guy can kick his ass at videogames."

_Why is he mad at me about Raven?_

"He has a massive crush on her, and she just keeps blowing him off, she doesn't laugh at his jokes. Which is understandable because she has a completely different sense of humor, if she even has one. So after becoming best friends with the cold shoulder, you roll up and have her tripping over her words and shaking without ever actually saying anything."

_It's not like I do it on purpose, I mean you guys don't even know what I look like for crying out loud, just because I treat her like a woman who shouldn't be feared, and not like 'one of the guys' doesn't mean I love her._

"But you do don't you man? Heh, don't think I didn't catch the bit of purple earlier. If your colors work like hers do, then I know exactly what those mean, why do you think I told BB to either back away or apologize when you went Red Hulk earlier?

…_.Fair enough_

"Yeah that's what I thought."

_I'm keeping this board though_

"That's fine by me, makes communication much easier. Are you a telepath?"

_Like I said earlier, if someone fears it, I can do it. I am the God of Fear. You can call me Nightmare_

Cyborg stares blankly at the revelation scrawled across his board, then the significance of the statement hits him. "You're the freaking God of Fear?!" suddenly a sly grin takes shape. "You're a god, one of the most powerful ones in existence, and you are in love with Raven? Oh this is funny"

_Tell anyone and I swear I will power you down where you stand_

"Nah man, you work that out with her on your own." "On a side note, you're pretty cool for a god."

_Thank you Victor._


	3. The Mask Drops

**CHAPTER THREE**

A few weeks had passed since his heart to heart with Cyborg. The hooded figure had declined a room, explaining that he didn't sleep so it would be wasted. Nightmare made his way into the common room to see the team absorbed in their own morning activities. Robin was situated at the table, leaned back in his chair listening to something on his phone while Starfire was scouring the fridge for something to eat. With a squeal of excitement she revealed a bottle of mustard and held it above her head in triumph. Raven, the keeper of the god's heart, was floating in front of one of the massive windows in meditation.

Nightmare simply wandered over to the couch and laid down, propping his arms behind his head in relaxation as he unhooked the dual scabbard from his back and laid it on the floor next to him. Suddenly he shot straight up on the couch, startling everyone in the room but the empath, who was deep in meditation as he bolted for the elevator and slammed the button for the ground floor. The rest of the team tried to catch up to the black blur, meeting him outside where he was guiding his horse to the garage in the side of the tower.

"Uh, is everything alright?" questioned Robin with a look of confusion and worry etched across his face.

"Yeah man, I haven't seen you move that fast since you got here." Explained Cyborg with much the same look. Nightmare, after successfully guiding the massive beast into the garage, turned to the rest of the group and hastily scribbled _He hates the rain, the sizzling annoys him_.

"Oh right, the whole superheated steel thing. Also, I didn't realize just how fucking massive your horse is man, he's a good two feet taller than me, and I'm the second tallest person here all thanks to you. Now that I think about it, you're both pretty damn tall. What are you, six five?"

_Six nine_

"Oh that's good, Rae likes 'em tall." Cyborg said with an amused grin as Nightmare's cloak slammed into grey almost instantly.

Completely missing the significance of the statement, Robin looked between Cyborg and a now grey clad Nightmare. "How is Raven relevant to Nightmare and his horse, speaking of which, does he have a name?" 

_Don't worry about it, his name is Vulcan. Named after the Roman smith god._

"That is a very fitting and lovely name for such a creature, friend Nightmare!"

"What is all the commotion, I could hear Cy laughing from the commons." An irritated monotone sounded from the elevator. "I was trying to meditate and I felt Nightmare's aura vanish from the room" _much to my sadness, I liked having him near, he calmed me_. " Then I hear you all get up, and a few minutes later Cyborg's laughter finally brought me out of my trance, you are lucky I don't blast you all right where you stand. Now what the hell is going on?" Raven steamed at the silent group of titans.

"Raven, just calm down. Darkness over here just bailed so he could bring his horse inside, he then explained that the sizzling sound of the rain irritates him. After that I asked what the horse's name was, Nightmare said it was Vulcan. Star told him that it was a very fitting and lovely name, Cyborg brought to our attention that both of these guys are incredibly tall and then laughed." explained a wary Robin, the team was backed against the far wall, weapons and powers brought to bear in defense. Amidst her rant, Raven's second set of eyes had opened and a soft black glow enveloped her body. Nightmare, on the other hand had turned when he heard the voice from behind him. Standing between the irate empath, and the rest of his friends, he then met the woman in the middle of the garage and placed his hands on either side of her face, gently stroking her cheeks as he looked down and his faceplate met her eyes.

Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg watched in complete silence as the tall figure they had come to befriend then leaned down and brought his mask to her forehead. Once they got over the shock of seeing someone so brazenly kiss the raging empath they managed to look down and see that the entirety of his cloak was almost neon pink. Almost as soon as his hands touched her cheek, Raven's soulself started to retreat back into her body. She felt the rough leather of his thumbs stroke the skin and the sensation sent shivers down her spine. Then, oh god then, he kissed her. The mask against her skin felt warm, she looked into where she thought his eyes were and was able to faintly make out two solid silver orbs staring back at her, darkened by the black mask between them.

Knees visibly shaking, Raven snaked her hands under the bright pink hood and laced her fingers behind his head, entwining them in the short hair and feeling the straps that held his mask on. Very slowly, almost like he was afraid of her reaction, Nightmare lowered the hood around his mask. Short dark brown hair capped with a thick stripe of red greeted the titans and he started to undo the leather cords binding his mask together. What was revealed when the mask clattered to the floor shocked everyone in the room. Light grey skin, only a few shades lighter than Raven's own, and minutely slanted eyes with irises the color of polished silver, were locked onto the woman who was now firmly in his arms. Pressed against the ebon leather of the rest of his combat suit. Raven let out a gasp at the sight of his face then trailed her pale fingers through the soft brown hair that was now so close to her, merely an inch away.

Leaning into her ear, Nightmare whispered in an impossibly deep voice, one that reverberated in her bones "I imagine you know who I am? Based on your reaction."

With a shaky voice, and even worse body, Raven mumbled "you're a god, and you're mine." Standing on her toes, she then grabbed a handful of his hair and brought them together in a kiss that had the rest of the team smiling. She felt his hands slide down to her hips and pull them even closer together, circling around her waist. Nightmare let his omen know just how much he loved her in that one moment, pouring all his feelings and what he saw when he looked at her through an empathetic link that was formed when they made contact. Pink and purple swirled around the cloth of his cloak, competing for dominance. Somewhere, forgotten in the tower common room, the wrappings of his swords mimicked the dance.

After enough time had passed to leave even Victor red in the face for the display, they broke the kiss. Turning, with his Raven still in his arms, Nightmare then spoke to the rest of the team in a voice that shook the dust off the rafters above them, the sound mimicking two mountains crashing together.

"Friends, it is nice to finally meet you face to face. My title is Nightmare, as I am the God of Fear I do not have an actual name, but if you wish you may call me Vulcan. Being a god of such power, my abilities are near limitless as I have explained before. I have decided to take a vacation of sorts, and go out into the domain that I hold the most power in to see what it is like to be human, or in our case, more than human. I will fight by your side until I no longer can, and I will make sure that your names go down in history, even for my brothers and sisters. They will know your names."

"It's nice to finally meet you man, sorry for being all tyrannical when we first met. We would be honored to have you on our side in this town, some more than others. We've been lucky enough to not have anything major happen in Jump since you've shown up." Stammered a frightened Robin, remembering how he had yelled at Vulcan when they had first met.

"There is no need to be sorry, I was a stranger outside of your home. And whether we were fortunate or lucky does not really matter, sooner or later something will pop up."


End file.
